


Almost a Disaster

by wolfofwinterfell



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Snape lives!, alone at the castle at Christmas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:21:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26367853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfofwinterfell/pseuds/wolfofwinterfell
Summary: When Hermione goes into the forest alone, things could end poorly. However, a certain other professor is around and may lend a helping hand. Gift fic written for the SS/HG fest on live-journal last winter.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Severus Snape
Comments: 4
Kudos: 52





	Almost a Disaster

Hermione sank to the ground, shivering, and tried to wrap her arms tighter around herself. She was getting colder by the moment, it seemed, and it had started to snow again. Her breath came hot against her lips and she imagined she could feel a little bit of warmth leaving her each time; in her mind, she could see herself turning to stone as she froze. Why did she have to drop her wand? Of all times for that to happen… 

She hadn’t imagined that Hagrid’s new creature - no, that was definitely a beast - would be entirely dangerous. Though he was misguided about a lot of them, he typically only brought in things that he could handle. Whatever this was, it did not fall under that category. She had barely even managed to get a glimpse of it before it was on her, claws and teeth ripping and shredding whatever it came in contact with. Her coat was completely destroyed and her jumper was ruined as well. It hung on her, gaping open in several places, a few of them showing blood. 

And without her wand, she couldn’t even heal herself. 

There was something moving again in the woods nearby and Hermione felt her heart rate begin to pick up. She couldn’t face that again, especially unarmed. Why hadn’t she tried harder at mastering wandless magic? Keeping an eye on the area she thought the noise was coming from, she leaned forward and began to feel for her wand. Stick...stick...stick… The next one felt more smooth but then she bumped a notch in it. Her fingers were cold and starting to go numb but then just as she was about to grab a whole bundle, she felt the familiar bumps of the design of vines that wrapped around it. 

“ _ Impedimenta! _ ” she whispered as she pushed herself back into a sitting position and then paused for a moment before following it up with another spell. “ _ Stupify!” _

She could tell both spells missed their target because she could still hear movement, but now that she had her wand in hand it didn’t seem as loud or as ominous as before. Her heart was beating so fast she was almost certain it was nearly as loud as her company and her chest felt tight. Was this how she was going to go? Alone in the Forest, with no one the wiser? 

Narrowing her eyes, she began to scan the area around her. If she was going to go down, she wanted to at least know where the creature was coming from. She wasn’t going to go without another fight, whether it was feeble or not. 

She was so absorbed in her surveillance in front of her that she almost missed the figure stepping out of the darkness of the treeline. The jinx she had been planning on firing died on her tongue - she knew that profile as well as she knew Harry’s or Ron’s - and she suddenly felt even more defensive than before. For so long she had been trying to impress him and now, when they were the only two professors at the school, she felt like she was doing exactly the opposite. 

_ I shot spells at him.  _

“Are you all right, Herm— Miss Granger?” He kneeled beside her, his expression still guarded as always and yet...she could see what she thought was a flicker of concern.

“Yes, thank you.” She nodded and felt her cheeks flush even as she began to shiver again. He’d almost called her by her first name! “Just cold.” 

He looked her over again and then stood and shrugged out of his coat. After he draped it around her, he offered her a hand to help her stand and gave her a cursory look over. “Do you think you can walk back to the castle?” 

“Certainly.” She was hurt, but not that badly, and she was cold...but that was already diminishing a bit. 

They began to walk together then, their pace slow, and Hermione had to stop herself from smiling a couple times. With each wince, she could feel him look at her and could see it as the furrow in his brow deepened. 

He cared after all. 

* * *

Every half hour after they got back to the castle, Severus insisted on checking on her, and after the fourth check up, Hermione was tired of the routine. She was loving the time with him, watching the way his face looked when he was concentrating...seeing the tenderness in his eyes when she made a sound and shifted when he hit a sore spot…but she wanted more than that. 

“If it would work better for you, Severus, I could come down while you brew. It’d save you some time.” She waited until he had finished checking her wounds again to say it and she was fully expecting him to turn her down. So when he nodded his assent, she felt her jaw drop a little, and she followed him down to his office, his coat wrapped around her once again. 

“Miss Granger, what exactly were you doing in the Forest?” He’d waited until he was back to brewing to ask her. 

“Ah...I was visiting Hagrid recently and he told me about a new creature he has. I was out there to see it.” She looked down to the ground, at the wet spots beneath her boots. “It attacked me, as you can see….”    
  
“Hmm. I can.” He added a vial to the cauldron he was standing in front of and stirred it before turning back to her again. “I do wonder, though, Miss Granger, why you wouldn’t let me know you were going out if that was the case. We are, after all, the only faculty left over the holiday. I only knew something was the matter because I heard your scream.” 

Her irritation sparked a bit at that. “With all due respect,  _ you  _ didn’t let  _ me  _ know that you were going to be out. What’s the difference, then?”

“The difference,  _ Hermione _ , is that it matters if you come back.”

He stared at her for a long moment before going to his desk. 

Half an hour later, he was watching her face instead of her side when he paused for his check up. Was he watching for her winces? Or was he doing something else? She wasn’t sure. Would he be breaking eye contact if it was one of those, instead of maintaining it like he was now? She didn’t think so. 

She didn’t think much at all, really, as she leaned forward to kiss him. She only thought later after they were kissing, when he wasn’t pushing her away from him and when his hand ran over the spot on her hip that had been bugging her so much earlier.

Turns out being the only two professors at the castle over Christmas wouldn’t be so bad after all. 


End file.
